Marianne van den Bree

Professor van den Bree is interested in the developmental pathways from substance use to misuse to addiction as well as the links with mental health. Her career has focused on characterizing the environmental and genetic influences on these trajectories. Her findings have been based on large longitudinal population-based studies of children and adolescents as well as twin studies. More recently, she has also established a longitudinal study of youngsters with chromosomal variation associated with high risk of psychiatric disorder.

Professor van den Bree received a MSc in Experimental Psychology from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, following which she completed a PhD in Human Genetics at VirginiaCommonwealthUniversityMedicalSchool in Richmond, USA. She subsequently worked as a researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in the USA. More recently, she joined the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences in the School of Medicine at Cardiff University, UK.

Professor van den Bree plays a lead role in several large international research consortia. She has published close to 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, many of which have appeared in high-ranking journals. Her research continues to contribute to the improvement of service delivery for socially disadvantaged people as well as patients with rare chromosomal conditions and mental health disorder.